Frank Edward McGurrin

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Frank Edward McGurrin invented Touch Typing in 1888. He was a court stenographer at Salt Lake City who taught typing classes. He taught himself to touch type without looking at the keys, before challenging and won a competition.

[edit] History

On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was purportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight-finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati. The results were displayed on the front pages of many newspapers^{[citation needed]}. McGurrin won $500 ($10,820 in 2006) and popularized the new typing method.

Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type, or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems^[1].

[edit] References

1. ^ Liebowitz, Stan & Margolis, Stephen E. (1996-06), “Typing Errors”, Reason, <http://www.reason.com/news/show/29944.html>. Retrieved on 14 February 2007